There was a woman in my hometown who wore the same hairstyle for 60 years and also the same style of clothing. It was as if time stood still in Gertrude's life. She was quite satisfied with her outdated hairstyle and dress and it didn't bother her a bit that other people made comments and laughed behind her back.
Gertrude is one example of living in the past, but there are other examples that are not as harmless. There are people that live in the past through their anger and unforgiveness.
My father was once contacted by a man that he had served in the army with in WWII. The man was in the area and wanted to stop by and see my father. My father agreed to it, but when the man came over, my father was not very friendly to the man. In fact, he was downright rude. Later, my dad acknowledged that this man had done something that upset him when they were in the army together.
I was shocked that my father was still holding a grudge against this man 45 years later. I have no idea whether the man even remembered whatever it was that he had done all those years ago that made my father angry, but I'm sure he left shaking his head and wondering.
Any time we hold a grudge or retain anger against someone, we are living in the past. We cannot be fully present in the moment when we refuse to take our foot out of the door of the past. Have you ever noticed that you cannot walk into another room unless you remove your foot from the room that you want to leave?
Jesus told his disciples at one point to "shake the dust from your feet" and move on. His point was that we cannot carry the past with us if we are going to move forward. We must be willing to shake off the negativity, anger and resentment that we may feel about someone if we want to move on with our lives and be totally free. Otherwise, we live in bondage to our emotions and are connected to the person that we feel these strong emotions towards even though they may not be physically present in our lives.
Are you chained to your past? Is there someone in your life that you need to release through forgiveness? Take time to do that now so that you can be in this moment, fully present and free from bondage.
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